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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26581354">Broken Glass</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurawinterrain/pseuds/aurawinterrain'>aurawinterrain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cyberpunk, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memory Loss, POV Akaashi Keiji, cyborg bokuto, flangst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:14:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,366</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26581354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurawinterrain/pseuds/aurawinterrain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"All that's left is smoke and ash, let's keep dancing on the broken glass." </p><p>-</p><p>Akaashi was one of the lucky ones to be employed by the government to built bots - even though he was essentially trapped in a prison.  Cyborgs weren't uncommon, but when he realised what the government was doing to the prototypes, he felt sick - so he did what he thought was the next best thing to do, escape. </p><p>except, things were never so simple, were they?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Broken Glass</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm honestly unsure if I portrayed the concept correctly, hopefully, I did. I'm also not proud of this fic, but I AM very honoured to be working with my partner for the bang - you can find their links here! (I will update this when I get their links!)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Akaashi glanced up at the night sky after a long day at the lab, a small piece of bread in his palm. He was lucky enough to sneak a piece out - normally he would have to go to bed on an empty stomach. Everyone was long gone, and the only people still stuck in the buildings were the commoners, who were the ones that were tasked with the most mundane but tiring jobs, and Akaashi was one of them. He had just finished programming yet another bot, sending it off to the higher-ups. They were never told what happened to the things they create, being taught to stay silent and do their job without question. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was hard since Akaashi was always an inquisitive child. He liked to ask questions, liked to challenge himself to answer them. There was some sort of satisfaction when he finally cracked the code to something, which was what drove him to study engineering in the first place. That was before the whole thing happened, back when he was still allowed to have a choice. Before the government seemingly turned away from their citizens and favoured the rich instead. One day the bots weren’t there, and then they were. Hundreds of people lost their jobs and Akaashi’s parents weren’t an exception. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was the beginning of the end. It became clear that their corruption in their government ran deep, and Akaashi could only watch helplessly as his parents were involved in underground gangs, struggling to fight for a way to live. They never did succeed - their house was burnt down, with his parents trapped inside. He was lucky enough to have survived, even luckier to stumble upon an officer scouting for potential talents. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I study engineering, sir,” He still remembered how his voice was trembling slightly, his hair unkempt and his clothes were tattered, but he didn’t want to give up on any opportunities that might give him a way out. Before he knew it, he was whisked to the ‘main building’, where all the coding and programming was done. And - though he wouldn’t find out until later - where the live testing was done. He was thrown into a dorm that he shared with 20 other people, all squeezed into a plain white room with bunk beds and desks lined up neatly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’s just like a prison</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he remembered thinking when he first saw the room. At that point, he contemplated breaking free and going back to roaming about on the streets, but the thought of at least having a roof over his head made him stay. He was planning to gather some information while working for the government, only to be thrown into a lab, having to work 12 hours a day, and only one meal would be provided. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s worse than a prison, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he concluded on the first night, but it’s been so goddamn long since he had slept on a mattress, that he just allowed himself to enjoy the small joys in his current life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Which brings us back to the current situation, where Akaashi was currently standing at the rooftop of the building, admiring the night sky. He couldn’t do this often, only when he had very minimal work that day, such that he finished way earlier than the rest of his fellow programmers, did he get the chance to sneak off to the rooftop. There were hardly any stars to be seen, due to the amount of light the city was emitting, despite the fact that it was nearing midnight. He slowly savoured the last pieces of the bread that he had snuck out from the kitchen, sighing softly as he surveyed the city. From such a high vantage point, he could see where the separation between the high and low classes began. The tall buildings, neon lights and self-driving cars were vastly contrasted by tattered low rise buildings that were close to falling apart. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gripping the railing, he couldn’t help but wish that he was in a more powerful position, so that he could </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>something to help the people where he came from. The alarm chirped, and he pushed away from the metal bars, making his way back to the dorm. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But in the end, there’s a limit to what a person can do,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he thought, as he mechanically went through the steps of washing up and changing into his sleeping outfit, before tucking himself into bed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>After all, we are really no better than slaves for the government here - it doesn’t matter if we were on the streets or trapped in this building. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first time Akaashi realised something was off was when he accidentally took a wrong turn after lunch. Fully intending to get back to work, he was in a hurry and turned right instead of left, ending up in a long corridor that appeared to have no end, at least from where he was standing. Knowing full well that this was illegal and he would probably get punished for being discovered in this area, he turned to make his way back when he heard a scream from one of the rooms nearby.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Akaashi froze. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That sounded human, </span>
  </em>
  <span>He thought numbly, his whole body going cold. He knew that they conducted testing somewhere in this building - testing for the prototypes before being sent to the programmers, and then the bots had to go through another round of testing before being released onto the market. But testing on </span>
  <em>
    <span>humans</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Even Akaashi thought that was going too far, no matter how corrupt their government was. Right? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Right</span>
  </em>
  <span>? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then it came again, an agonised scream that made Akaashi’s blood run cold. Unable to fight back the curiosity any longer, he slowly made his way to the room, trying to peek through the small gap at the top of the door. He vaguely made out some shapes. There were at least three people standing around a chair, and another person being strapped to said chair. There were wires </span>
  <em>
    <span>everywhere</span>
  </em>
  <span>, all connected to the poor being. It was struggling to break free from the chair and the wires, making soft whimpering noises that became louder now that he was this close to the door. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then, the light in the room shifted to focus on whoever was on the chair, and Akaashi let out a soft gasp. He would recognise that two-toned hair </span>
  <em>
    <span>anywhere</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Just two weeks ago, he was summoned to work on the prototype. The higher ups mentioned something about it being urgent, so Akaashi didn’t have lunch that day, spending his time tinkering with the machine. It was only when they moved the bot away did he realise that something was wrong - the bot didn’t have a ‘battery’. There wasn’t a component for him to insert the usual lithium box, nor was there a place where he could plug the bot in to charge.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly feeling sick to his stomach, he went out to the cafeteria only to overhear a bunch of people gossiping about the bot he had just fixed up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s not fully robot..” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what is he? Human?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Akaashi didn’t want to hear any further. Straightening, he swallowed down the thick lump in his throat and continued on with his daily tasks, trying his best to push the image of the bot out of his mind. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now, staring right at the creation he helped bring to life, he was almost certain that he had helped to ‘fix up’ a human. The bots that were created had no pain receptors, after all. He would know, he was the one fixing up the bots, and he never recalled them having any ‘feelings’ programmed in them. Nor were they built to feel pain. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This is sick, this is so sick</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Akaashi turned around and walked back to his lab, a million thoughts swirling around his mind. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t do this,</span>
  </em>
  <span> He thought, looking at the tasklist for the day. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What if they make me do it again? Make me turn another of whatever-that-</span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>thing</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>-is on? Just to operate on it? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Closing his eyes, the engineer dropped into his chair, taking a few slow, deep breaths.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I have to find a way out</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
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